Day 5 - Portland to Mt Gambier

Jeanette made friends with 'Spida' Everitt who was camped 2 spots up from us this morning. He was off on a charity bike ride, his wife and son were in a very flash Jayco Motorhome. We packed up and were on the road around 10am... for a short journey of just over a hundred km's to Mt Gambier.

We took the scenic route via Nelson. The traffic was light, the weather warmed right up. The scenery was largely pine plantations... wood chips destined for export via Portland Harbour. A ship had been loading up on them while we were there. Soon after Nelson we had a photo stop at the border crossing... as you do.

The kids were travelling pretty well so we continued on and arrived in Mt Gambier in time to set up camp before lunch. By now it was very warm... We're staying at 'Pine Country' Caravan Park which is behind the famous Blue Lake. The place is on bore water and we were treated to some lovely lush green grass to camp on! They had sprinklers going nearby and Ethan and Gemma loved running through them and both ended up saturated. Quite a novelty for them... they've never seen a sprinkler before! Zac showed far more maturity, prefering to help set up the caravan with us!

The wind gusted during the afternoon becoming quite strong. We rolled up the awning to stop it flapping around. The temperature was in the high 30's. Despite this we managed to get the kids to have a sleep.

Later in the afternoon went and had a look at the Blue Lake... and yes, it was quite blue. Then we went to Umpherstone Sinkhole - a wonderful cascading garden in a big hole in the ground. Lots of dangling ivy, pink hydrangeas (?). We walked down into the hole and enjoyed some time there. Back out of the hole we found an old bulldozer and an old logging truck to climb all over... so we did just that.

After dinner we bathed and PJ'ed the kids and then set off to look for some Christmas lights. Found some great ones and got out of the car and walked around a bit. Ethan kept exclaiming 'Wow!' at each new house. It was a real highlight for both the boys especially. It was a very windy and balmy evening. Looking forward to a cool change due during the night.